I’ve taught and continue to teach my son that when you do wrong, you pay for doing wrong. He was taught to respect the uniform of the law and the man wearing it.

When an officer can write you a ticket because he feels you don’t belong in that neighborhood at a certain time, well, I can’t respect the man or the uniform.

And when that officer lies to a traffic judge just to justify the ticket, what should we think? Has he done this before? Will he keep doing this since he did get away with it?

All because my son wanted to drop his girlfriend off at home and watch her go in at 12:30 a.m. on a side street. Now it is true that he wasn’t curbside but it’s also true that he didn’t leave the vehicle.

As his girlfriend was about to exit the vehicle she noticed a police car pull alongside them. My son rolled down his window and greeted them with “Good evening, officers.”

The officer in the passenger seat asked, “What are you doing over here?”

The response: “I’m dropping off my girlfriend” must have struck a nerve.

The officer now stated “Move your car.”

The reply was “I’m just dropping her off and going home.”

That didn’t sit well with the officer.

“Oh. you want to be a smartass in front of your girlfriend?”

With that they backed up their vehicle, put on their lights and proceeded to write a ticket for obstructing traffic lane.

Hmm, 12:30 a.m. on a side street with no traffic flow, cars including the police vehicle able to pass with no problem, and just dropping off: That calls for a ticket?

Oh, did I mention the officers drove away forward after writing the ticket? I guess my son wasn’t really obstructing anyone and the officer really didn’t want him to move.

My son went to Traffic Court and the officer told a different story from what occurred. He said he observed my son double-parked and never pulled up alongside him or spoke to him.

Doesn’t that count as perjury? “Guilty as charged” said the traffic judge because the officer is —surprise — credible.

Don’t expect my son to greet you any more. He doesn’t respect the man who wears the uniform. If you need to get your ticket tally up, I can show you where cars go through stop signs and speed.

Then again, why should I? You couldn’t admit you were wrong for this one little ticket that cost two points on his license.